Chinese balloon sensors retrieve from the water

• The US military reports that the sensors from the first alleged Chinese spy balloon was shot down.
• The balloon that was shot down over South Carolina was the size of three buses.
• Due to bad weather, the recovery of the balloon that was shot down on February 4 was delayed.

The US military reports that the sensors from the first alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the US have been found in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to US Northern Command, search teams discovered “substantial site debris, including all of the priority sensor and electronics items listed.”

The goods, which according to the US were used to snoop on secret military installations, are being investigated by the FBI.

Since the first one was shot down on February 4th, the US has destroyed three more targets. Military sources claim that “large parts of the structure” were also found on Monday off the coast of South Carolina.

According to CBS, the BBC’s US partner, the pieces include about 30-40ft (9-12m) of the balloon’s antennas.

China said the high-altitude balloon was a weather-monitoring airship that had gotten out of control, contrary to claims made by US officials who claimed it was a surveillance balloon that originated in China.

Since that initial event, three more high-altitude objects have been shot down by American fighter jets above Alaska, the Yukon Territory in Canada, and Lake Huron on the US-Canada boundary.

According to US media, which cited military sources, the first Sidewinder missile fired by the US F-16 warplane during the Lake Huron attack missed its objective and exploded in an unidentified place.

The second rocket found its mark. Over $400,000 (£330,000) is spent on each Sidewinder missile.

The slow-moving, unknown objects, all of which were smaller than the initial balloon, may be challenging for military planes to target, according to officials.

The three further objects were shot down on Monday, according to White House spokesperson John Kirby, “out of an abundance of caution.”

They were destroyed “to safeguard our security, our interests, and flight safety,” he claimed, even though they did not represent “any direct threat to individuals on the ground.”

According to officials, the balloon that was shot down over South Carolina was the size of three buses.

A “little car”-sized object was described as the second item, which was above Alaska. Over the Yukon, the third object was “cylindrical.” The fourth flight, over Michigan, was described as “octagonal” but with restrictions.

The downed aircraft over Yukon seemed to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,” according to a Pentagon memo that was later revealed in US media.

In the report, defense officials also noted that after impact, the object that was shot down in Michigan “subsequently slowly sank” into the ocean.

Due to bad weather, the recovery of the balloon that was shot down on February 4 was delayed. Debris from the other objects that were thrown out of the sky is currently being collected.

The search area in the Yukon Territory, according to the federal police force of Canada, was around 3,000 sq km (1,870 sq miles), and it included “rugged alpine terrain with a very high degree of snowpack.”

The shards from the accidents in the Yukon and Lake Huron may never be found, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Sean McGillis, because of their distant locations.

Major-General Paul Prévost of the Canadian Armed Forces claimed that the Lake Huron item was “a suspected balloon” and that all three of the most recent objects to be shot down appeared to be “lighter than air” vehicles.

The military leader also advised anyone in the public who came across debris to get in touch with the police right away.

According to people with knowledge of the talks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is thinking of seeing Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, at a security conference in Munich, Germany, later this week.

The top American ambassador postponed a trip to Beijing that was initially scheduled for last week amid the controversy over high-altitude planes.

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